Small Business and Web Sites, Good Times

Kat Rice, who I met briefly at Wordcamp Dallas, posted How to Tell if Your Webmaster is Cheating on You today and it's a topic that is really about disclosure. If you hire outside help for your website, are you getting the whole truth? Go read through her list of red-flag statements that may be signs you're not getting all the facts. I'll get to those in a second.

First I want to hit on the topic of small business and what it means to work in that area as a web vendor. The small business market is brutal. If your only business experience is with Fortune 500 companies and you decide to market your skills to small businesses in your area, get ready for the rack. With no other income, getting $1000 from some small companies is a miracle to behold.

I went out on my own and had my butt handed to me on a paper plate over and over for many reasons. One was a personal illness that I plan on writing about when I find the right way to approach it. But the other reasons are also important. These reasons come back to me when I read articles like Kat's because those half-truths and evasive statements are how small business operates.

Small Business Runs on Fumes and Feelings

I've yet to meet a small business executing a five-year business plan. If they are, they're probably a start-up and I put start-ups in a completely different category of business, even though there is similar behavior. With your experienced corporate eyes, you may know companies will spend seventeen million dollars for a company blog. Why? Nobody really knows but they really do. So when you spend 20 hours writing a proposal for a potential client who wants a sophisticated e-commerce you walk away bewildered when they throw your $11,000 proposal in your face followed by vulgarities. And you thought you'd save them money by using open source frameworks and doing the customization yourself. No they didn't appreciate that either.

Modern small business culture is a product of decades of collective wisdom rooted in the 1950s. Most everything related to marketing is compared to yellow page advertising, much the same way large companies compare everything to television advertising. If you think your customer is progressive and understands the Web, double check. You may find your customer's idea of value is incompatible with reality. Because most of these businesses run such tight margins, $1000 is a lot of money as you're finding out yourself since you've been writing $11,000 proposals. Even if the value is right for your proposal, business owners may feel that's too much and will say things to that will kill one synapse at a time. You may hear, "I spoke with Charlie at church--he works for a bank and even with computers--he thinks $11,000 is way too much. He said just set up a Yahoo store." You may also hear, "My cousin's neighbor has a kid in high school who will do it for nothing." [Editor's note: the kid will also use the site to launch denial of service attacks against his Internet frenimy, Warlock.]

Everybody Is Trying to Find Their Way

Your perception of value will be competing with the perception of value of somebody who is selling hardware or owns a restaurant or is mostly a mechanic. Just as you can't fathom why a brake job is $500, small business owners cannot wrap their brains around what it takes to build a custom website. You can try to explain it, but they will not get it. In Kat's article, she is listing some of the common website sales pitches that have been dumbed down for small business. Rarely do you find an educated small business owner who truly understands that website creation and management has no rules. Every vendor is different and small businesses are really looking for a consultative partner rather than a gee-whiz stenographer.

This is why disclosure is so important. If you cannot sit across from somebody and tell them the whole truth about who you are, then you have no business dealing with small business. Just as you have to get to know your client, they need to get to know you and begin to trust you.

The List

So I'm going to take Kat's list and change it to how these items should be pitched by ethical web vendors.

1. This individual design is just for you. How about this: "I can create a unique design for you, but it will cost more because it takes more time. If you don't mind a site based on existing templates, we can start there, but some cost."
2. The most important thing is design. How about this: "After we figure out how you want to approach the design, the next step is to make sure the message and design work together. This involves making sure colors and graphics don't clash with your message."
3. Everyone charges a monthly fee for upkeep. This one is tricky because some web vendors need to count on monthly fees as a business model and that should be fully disclosed. So try this: "We have our own dedicated server [if true] and it's easier to maintain your site if you host it on our server. In addition, my company charges a monthly retainer of $x because we provide services above and beyond initial site creation. For example, if there is a vulnerability in your site's code, we will fix it. The retainer is a flat rate and we will charge outside of that retainer. Here look at this complete list of services we provide for the monthly retainer. If you don't want that, then when these are necessary, we will bill hourly with advanced notification."
4. SEO costs extra. It's never part of the coding process. The whole SEO thing bugs me.  There are genuine, good people selling SEO services and there are people like, say Superpages, who tell small businesses they need to pay $17,000 a month (true story) to compete in Keller, Texas. Here is how I always answer the SEO questions: "SEO  is something I know about, but I'm not an expert. I can do what I can to optimize your site so SEO is easier as you manage content in the future. However, I can also recommend trusted SEO experts for the future. Also, do not expect that you will be number one on Google for the single word 'hardware'. Please keep that in mind."
5. Your website or social media or email or whatever is the only marketing your company needs. How about this: "Your online presence is part of an overall strategy. I'm not a business management consultant. My expertise lies with website and social media. I do not do public relations or traditional marketing. However, I have several companies I've vetted who I can recommend for that type of work."

Hopefully this is helpful to you if you are going after small business. If so, you will needs a dumpster full of patience and a savings account large enough to help you get established.

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Tagged as: Business, Consulting, Culture